A Mobile-Friendly Website or an App – Which One Should You Choose?

In the modern day, everything is connected to the internet. You create your doctor’s appointment on the internet, you study on the internet, you shop there for everything from technology to groceries. What’s more important though is the fact that in recent years, we aren’t exclusively connecting to the internet from home. People are using the internet through their mobile devices on the go more and more every year. According to analytical statistics, 55.79% of traffic on websites comes from mobile devices, while 44.21% comes from desktops. Having a mobile compatible website is a must. The question is, should you opt for a mobile app or a mobile-friendly website?

There are many factors to be taken into consideration before answering that question. What do you need the website or the app for? How much money are you ready to invest? Do you have enough time or do you need it done fast? Since all of these aspects are important when making the decision, let’s discuss them separately below.

Cost

Creating a mobile-friendly website is a lot cheaper than making a full-blown mobile app. You can create a website by yourself, with no coding knowledge at all, by using a website builder. What’s more to it – some website builders even have free plans. On the other hand, when it comes to apps, you either need to have programming skills and a lot of time or find someone else who does and pay them to develop the app for you.

Time

If you need to roll out your website or product pretty quickly and don’t have time to spare, you should probably go with a mobile-friendly website, at least for the time being. Depending on how complex your website is going to be and how experienced you are, creating a website yourself can take anywhere from a day to a couple of weeks. The app will take a minimum of a couple of weeks and can take much more, depending on manpower and complexity.

Features

Apps make use of notifications. You are able to reach out to people when they aren’t even logged in or looking at your app – that is, if they hadn’t disabled them. On the other hand, websites generally don’t have notifications, even though lately there have been some examples that have incorporated this feature as well.

Aside from the above, apps can be used offline while websites cannot. This can be considered a big advantage as – depending on the app – an offline app can do nearly everything its online variant can.

Websites are generally more accessible and are much more compatible across multiple platforms than the apps which, in turn, must have different versions for separate operating systems. You can find and share websites very easily – just by linking to their address – while the apps are a bit more complicated.

It is also worth to note that websites are much easier to update than apps. Overall, maintaining a website takes a lot less work and also costs less than maintaining an app.

Type of business

Now, you might be wondering, which businesses should choose which option? They both have their strengths and weaknesses and you have to analyze which one fits you more. For example, if you have a game, apps offer much more freedom and advanced options. On the other hand, search engines will remain website-prevalent at least for the foreseeable future, while social media platforms are becoming almost app exclusive as time goes on. In either case, though, you have to look at what you have, what you want to sell or offer, and see which option fits you more, as this decision has many variables for you to consider.

The bottom line is – when it comes to choosing between the two options, we couldn’t suggest that you choose one over the other. It is a subjective matter, depending on your business model, the product or service you’re promoting, as well as your budget and time at disposal among other circumstances. Look at each medium’s strength and weaknesses, and then compare them side-by-side to find your perfect match.